Team:BHSF ND/Safety
2019 IGEM BHSF_NDSafety
Introduction
As Theodor Reik (Sigmund Freud disciple) said: “In science, like in all life fields, a slogan is imposed: safety first”. Nowadays, safety is an essential requirement when creating new devices which humans will use, and BHSF_ND is not different.
This document describes the safety of our project, a clever step before beginning is to know what it is. Safety describes the containment principles, technologies and practices that are implemented to prevent the unintentional exposure to pathogens and toxins, or their accidental release. Furthermore, safety is how you have protected yourself and other in order to avoid any harms which could occur.
BHSF_ND is designed to be a secure device, because is going to be used by bio-artists, schools and researchers which are our identified potential users according to MIT segmentation table and we do not want it to be a variable which create concern in those users. This approach together with our lab tools and possibilities, have influenced the experiments we did and the way we build BHSF_ND. Next paragraphs describe our lab safety and how and why we implemented biosafety and biosecurity requirements in BHSF_ND.
Training
All team members who work in the wet lab must complete full training prior to the onset of work under the instruction of staff and teachers in the lab. These courses set specific guidelines and are the standard requirement for work in a biosafety-level 1 lab at Beijing No.4 High School. Additionally, all team members will attend the experiment seminar with the AP teacher, Jinjing Zeng. During these seminars, they will check on the students safety operation procedures specific to the labspace in which we work.
Furthermore, our downstream micro-capsule experiment is highly paid attention to. The total assembly and cultivation is strictly supervised for every procedures and well documented. The exact proportion of ingredients and the sequence involving in assembly is not only related to safety issue, but also the success of our self-repairing concrete.
Enforcement
Our team members who violate safety rules are required to work under the supervision of the experiment staff for the remainder of the week, or until the safety officer believes the member is capable of performing the task unsupervised. For multiple infractions or complete disregard to safety protocols, a member may be restricted from laboratory work until he/she undergoes retraining again and demonstrates proper performance to a team leader of failed technique(s) in a controlled setting.
Project Specified Lab Safety
Extra precaution was taken when working with toxin, the important DNA segments of our design. The chemical was kept on a separate, specified lab bench and gloves were immediately discarded as to not contaminate other areas of the workspace. EtBr gels were also discarded in designated waste containers. Furthermore, hands were washed immediately after using the toxin and always before leaving the laboratory.